Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe said it hasn’t finalized
plans to force foreign banks, including Barclays Plc and
Standard Chartered Plc, to sell majority stakes in their local
units to black Zimbabweans.

“I am still working on what needs to be done and how it
will be done,” Indigenization Minister Francis Nhema said in a
phone interview today. “Nothing has been finalized as to the
compliance issues.”

Nhema said he plans to meet with foreign banks, which under
the country’s law must sell or cede 51 percent of their
operations to black Zimbabweans or the state-owned National
Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Board. Foreign-owned
lenders won’t immediately be asked to comply with that law, the
state-run Herald reported earlier today, citing the minister.

Barclays, Standard Chartered and the local units of South
Africa’s Standard Bank Group Ltd. and Nedbank Group Ltd. have
all submitted proposals to comply with the law. Zimbabwe Central
Bank Governor Gideon Gono said in May that the plans to force
systemically important foreign banks to sell majority stakes to
black Zimbabweans were “uninformed.”